“We’ve got a boy at Derby who can play a bit.”

We over-used a number of Brian Clough quotes in the 1970s, along with various bits from Python, Fawlty Towers, the BBC’s David Coleman etc. I think he had been referring to Colin Todd, the England defender.

On 26/10/73, eleven days after Brian Clough had resigned as Derby County manager, I went there on a day trip by train, changing at Crewe. I took photos on the station of Nos. 64, 1105, 5901 and 25244 and then went back home.

When I met him briefly at the City Ground, Nottingham, towards the end of his time there, Brian Clough was his own inimitable self. We had been introduced to the Forest captain, Brian Laws, before a match to which we had been invited as a thank you for our school’s involvement in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme. Brian marched over, put his arm round Laws and said to us, “You don’t want to listen to a word this young man says.” “Young man!” – I can hear him now. He would have just had to include that phrase, wouldn’t he?

I chuckle about it every time that I pass his statue in Nottingham city centre. What a character – and what an astonishing achievement at two neighbouring, provincial clubs, now connected by Brian Clough Way.